Monday Papers: Top Nato general in Russian troops alert

Top stories

Financial Times: Nato’s top military commander warned on Sunday that Russia was massing troops on Ukraine’s eastern border, in a show of force ahead of President Barack Obama’s arrival in Europe for talks on a united response to a crisis which has shaken the continent.

Daily Mail: Future of infrastructure spending in doubt as insurance firms say changes to pensions could stop them from investing in long-term projects.

Financial Times: Growing volumes of euro-denominated “covenant light” loans have now aroused the interest of European regulators, who are increasing their monitoring of lenders’ behaviour.

Financial Times: A group representing institutional investors and pay campaigners has made a formal complaint to regulators, suggesting that companies are already breaking new “say on pay” rules.

The Guardian: Ofgem, the energy watchdog, has failed to make inroads into the market dominance of the Big Six suppliers over the last five years - an omission that many believe is responsible for soaring domestic power bills - figures show.

Daily Mail: Internet search giant Yahoo has shifted its tax base to Ireland as part of a major restructuring that could cost governments across Europe millions in lost taxes.

The Daily Telegraph: Families of passengers on Malaysian Airline's missing flight MH370 have received hardship payments and the airline has been paid for the plane.

Business and economics

Financial Times: The NHS needs an extra £2 billion, the departing chief executive has said, with “very tight” finances threatening to push the service into the red before the next general election.

Financial Times: Commodity Futures Trading Commission has warned market participants of potential legal charges as it escalates a probe into more than a million energy, metals, foreign exchange and other swap transactions.

Financial Times: Nasdaq is re-evaluating a venture based on Amazon’s cloud computing services after a landmark partnership to offer back-office data storage to banks and brokers failed to gain traction with customers.

Financial Times: Eurozone governments are taking advantage of unexpectedly low borrowing costs to push ahead with debt issuance, with some countries further ahead in their debt raising plans than in any year since the start of the eurozone crisis.

Financial Times: Michael Heseltine has taken full control of Haymarket, the publishing group he co-founded 50 years ago, as it restructures to move its flagship consumer titles online and expand internationally.

Financial Times: Buy now, pay later schemes offered by some of the UK’s biggest retailers are responsible for more borrowers falling into unaffordable levels of debt than payday loans.

Financial Times: The government is offering to share the burden of losses on some small business loans through a new scheme aimed at encouraging banks to lend more to these borrowers.

Financial Times: A restructuring of Walmart’s China business is being challenged by the country’s normally reticent official union, which is involved in at least one of three protests that have erupted at stores slated for closure this month.

Financial Times: Visa and MasterCard have restarted processing payment transactions for customers of a Russian bank linked to oligarchs blacklisted by the US government on Thursday, in an indication that Washington’s latest sanctions could hit the corporate sector less than initially feared.

Financial Times: The head of General Electric’s European business has called for Britain to stay in the EU and Scotland to remain a part of the UK.

Financial Times: Paolo Scaroni, chief executive of Eni, is doubtful about the future of the South Stream project intended to pipe Russian gas under the Black Sea to Bulgaria, unless the EU and Russia find a way out over Ukraine.

Financial Times: Rostec, the Russian state-backed technology investment group, has taken a 25% stake in Yotaphone, the maker of a smartphone that doubles as an e-reader.

Financial Times: The proportion of female chief executives around the world is growing but women’s overall share of senior business roles has stalled, research has found.

Financial Times: Tullow Oil is to become the first oil company to disclose its payments to foreign governments with the level of detail demanded by anti-corruption campaigners, advancing a transparency drive that has met fierce resistance in parts of the industry.

Financial Times: Hayfin, a London-based fund manager, has raised more than €2 billion from institutional investors to offer senior loans to medium-sized European companies, making it the largest such fund to date.

Financial Times: Nasdaq OMX has agreed to sell its trading systems to the Bangladesh bourse in a sign that the US group is ramping up technology sales to exchanges in Asia as they modernise to boost turnover.

Financial Times: European mobile markets with greater competition such as the UK, Finland and Austria have lower prices and higher levels of take-up than those dominated by a few large groups, according to a new study.

Financial Times: A fresh wave of confidence is sweeping over Britain’s housebuilders after measures were presented in the Budget that chancellor George Osborne said would “support over 200,000 new homes”.

Financial Times: Oil prices rose more than $1 a barrel as investors, unnerved by US sanctions against Russia, ran to cover their positions ahead of the weekend.

Financial Times: Britain will have less need for a big hub airport such as Heathrow because of the way the aviation industry is evolving, Gatwick will argue this week as it prepares its case for expansion.

Financial Times: Fang Fang, a vice-chairman at JP Morgan Chase in China, is leaving the bank amid an investigation into its hiring practices in Asia.

Financial Times: Wage inequality has increased almost three times as much in London than in the UK as a whole since the millennium, according to a report by the Trades Union Congress.

The Daily Telegraph: Multinational companies such and Amazon and Apple will be forced to add VAT to all UK downloads from next January.

The Daily Telegraph: Energy minister Fallon says Putin’s intervention in Ukraine show why Britain needs to reduce its dependence on imports from “unstable” regions, such as Russia.

The Daily Telegraph: The rapid decline of North Sea oil and gas resources and uncertainty over Scottish independence is causing uncertainty over the oil city's future.

The Daily Telegraph: Business Secretary makes clear the Government will not support substantial pay rises at the postal service.

The Guardian: More than 17,000 homes have been bought under the Government's Help to Buy scheme, according to the latest official figures.

The Guardian: The president of the international co-operative movement has launched a stinging attack on the former boss of the Co-operative Group, Euan Sutherland, for creating a culture clash at the 170-year-old mutual and failing to heed the views of its 8 million members.

Daily Express: The Co-operative Bank is set to unveil losses of more than £1.2 billion, which will push its parent company into the biggest loss in its 168-year history.

Daily Express: Tesco is to become the first foreign supermarket to enter India after yesterday sealing a deal with the Tata Group to jointly run a chain of shops.

Daily Mail: BAE’s former US boss has landed a retention payment of £1.4 million – despite retiring last month.

Daily Mail: Tax breaks to boost Britain's computer games industry could be introduced as early as this week after delays winning approval from Europe kept the measures out of last week's Budget.

Share tips, comment and bids

Financial Times: Cambian, one of the UK’s biggest providers of care for those with behavioural and mental health problems, is planning an IPO of £500 million.

Financial Times: Standard Life is in talks to buy Ignis Asset Management in a move that would accelerate consolidation in the UK fund management sector.

Daily Express: Electra has paid £14 million for Calrec, which was formed in 1964 and supplies audio mixing consoles used by TV and radio broadcasters including the BBC, Sky and Al Jazeera.

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